In Retrospect
by PSYchOtiC-teNdencieS
Summary: What's the difference between one lifetime and the next? Friendship still runs deep, and bonds hold strong. Enemies return, and are always defeated in the end. What really changes with time? So little, it seems... AtemYugi shounenai.


**A/n**: Heheh... I _should_ be working on _Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground _... but I'm not. This is a story idea I've had for a short while, and while it was still in my head I just typed it up. I edited and revised it a little bit time after time, until I finally decided that it was more or less ready for posting.

Yea, it's a one-shot with SPOILERS and just a _touch_ of shounen-ai. Or a little more than that. Or a lot more than that. But I shall speak no more of it! If I put SHOUNEN-AI in caps on the summary, BL junkies will pop in for the "action" alone I fear. I mean, I'm kind of a junkie too... I just prefer there to at least be a _point_ to a shounen-ai story. I hate it when the only point is to flaunt BL (on that note, never read _The Confession_).

Big cheers for Yami Hitokori for encouraging me on this fic! Er, but don't blame her for my under-developed writing. She's a truly inspirational writer, with stories so... so deep... so moving... excuse me, but I'm afraid I've become too... _emotional_... to... continue...

(I bow to that woman. As should you.)

* * *

"Burgers tonight, man!" Jounouchi cried as he charged down the stairs. Atemu smiled softly and followed, a little less enthusiastic than his always hungry friend.

_"Mana, slow down!" Mahado scolded._

_"Sorry master," she said meekly, slowing the pace with which she ate her food considerably. Atemu chuckled._

Anzu was waiting for them at the bottom, and she rolled her eyes as Jounouchi explained with great detail (to nobody in particular) what his order would be. Seeing Atemu with him, she smiled.

"Hey Atemu-kun, ready to go?"

Atemu grinned and nodded at her, visibly filled with gratitude to have a friend such as she.

_"Pharaoh," at the sudden change of tone, the young pharaoh looked up with slight surprise and into Isis' ever serious, but unusually soft eyes, "I would stay by your side to the death. Never you doubt that. Now, back to History..."_

Honda bounded in from the neighboring room, eager to get moving.

"Guys, you coming? What's taking so _long_?" he asked impatiently, turning to Jounouchi, "Hey Jou, come here... I hope you all realize that with every second we waste, this," Honda cradled and petted Jounouchi's head as though he were an injured puppy; Jounouchi growled and fought to get him off, "is more and more likely to die of deprivation!"

_"Give the pharaoh a break, Isis," Karimu said, grinning, "he deserves one after a lecture like that. What'd you _do_? I've never seen Akunadin so disheveled- you could _see_ the smoke just whizzing out of his ears!"_

"I'll be there in a minute," Atemu reassured Honda and Anzu as he continued the search for his favorite leather wrist-bands. He wasn't going _anywhere_ without them...

"Well, okay. I hear even Kaiba's gonna show!" Jounouchi made a face.

"Him? But he _never_ eats _burgers_! ...Wait a minute, does he even eat?"

"...Probably not."

_"Seth may be a little 'stiff', Mana, and his treatment of the lower class is at times insufferable- but he is a good, loyal man, and I trust him with my life," Atemu told her sternly._

"Shizuka will be there," Anzu said cheerily; Jounouchi smiled, and Honda's face lit up.

"Okay, I am _definitely_ going," Otogi proclaimed, quickly emerging from the same room Honda had entered.

Atemu sighed as Honda furiously reminded Otogi that he didn't originally _want_ to go, and Jounouchi glared suspiciously at them, choosing eventually to yell at both about leaving his sister alone.

"I have simply been forced to _reconsider_ my decision. It's not like I've committed a _crime_!"

_"I'm a, I mean, a _huge_ fan of yours'. I really admire your, you know, laws and stuff- maybe we could, you know, hang out and stuff sometime and like, you know, talk about this ruling thing or something... what do you say, hm? Is it a date?"_

_Atemu blinked at the little Mesopotamian princess and gave Shaada a panicked look, who was frantically signaling something to him; he had no _idea_ what he was trying to say._

_"...Er, come again?"_

_Shaada shook his head at Atemu as the girl ran off near tears, "Really, pharaoh. You have _no_ tact!"_

Anzu decided to take part in the bickering, scolding each of them for their immaturity.

"I thought you kids were eating out tonight!" Sugoruko hollered over the noise, "Go! Take this chaos outside!"

This made Atemu chuckle slightly as he lifted one of the cushions from the couch, discovering one of his wrist bands underneath it. How did it get _there_?

_"Mana! _What_ are you doing in that jar? Get out of there at once and play somewhere _away_ from the valuables of the palace!" Shimon roared at the young magician. Atemu gave her an encouraging look, having felt her pain many times before..._

Atemu looked out contemplatively at his now fighting/yelling/lecturing group of friends.

What's the difference between one lifetime and the next? Friendship still runs deep, and bonds hold strong. Enemies return, and are always defeated in the end. What really changes with time? So little, it seems...

But the reincarnated pharaoh knew that, similar though they sometimes appeared, there was one significant difference between his past and his present. His past life had always felt so... incomplete... as though something was missing.

"Mou hitori no boku!" Yuugi exclaimed as he emerged from his room, eyeing the chaos apprehensively, "What's going on!"

Atemu grinned, shrugging.

"Who knows."

Yuugi glared accusingly at him as he retrieved Atemu's other wrist band from the top of a bureau. Atemu's grin widened. They did that, sometimes. All they had to do was look at one another to know what the other was thinking. Well, there was that and the mind-link, but Atemu preferred to believe that it was something else.

"You're not going to do anything about it?"

"And why would I? I find it quite entertaining."

Yuugi sighed as Atemu laughed, knowing exactly how to frustrate his hikari without actually getting him angry. He looked so cute when frustrated. Then again, his hikari _always_ looked cute...

"Alright, alright," Atemu lifted his hands in submission, heading for the door before calling over the noise, "Don't let us interrupt- we'll just start out without you!"

The bickering immediately ceased as Atemu ran a great risk of being trampled over by Jounouchi and Honda.

"You would've gone _without_ us!"

"Hey hey, we're coming, we _were_ coming, did it not _look_ like we were coming!"

"Shizuka should be graced with sighting _my_ entry first!"

"You're all so _conceited_! Honestly, I don't understa- where are you going? I'm _talking_ to you, don't just walk away! Hey!"

Atemu, who had quickly removed himself from the line of fire (the doorway), now held the door open for his hikari in his most stately manner. Yuugi giggled as he and Atemu followed the frenzying bunch.

"That _was_ kind of cruel," he pointed out.

Atemu shrugged.

"They're out of the house, at least. As long as they're going to murder each other, they may as well do it out here."

Yuugi gave him a half-hearted shove for the comment, smiling despite himself. Atemu grinned and caught his arms, pulling the boy closer to him. The two paused for a moment to share a brief but gratifying kiss before running hand-in-hand to catch up with their friends.

_The pharaoh let out a small, secret sigh as he spread himself out on his bed. He had finally decided that it would never happen to him. No matter how much he wanted to, he would never fall in love. Not in this lifetime.

* * *

_

**A/n**: Aw, isn't that sweeeeeet? ...No? Damn it. I just can't _do_ sweet! But I tried, give me that at least.

REVIEW, REVIEW FOR YOUR _LIVES_!


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